Philippe Gouze has been raising hens for about 10 years, and when his current batch of Golden Laced Wyandottes get too old to lay eggs, they will end up in steaming hot pots of stew.

Gouze, a New City resident and general manager of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, slaughters his hens for food, what he considers part of being a responsible backyard poultry keeper.

"I grew up in the countryside with a grandmother who raised chickens, duck and geese," said Gouze, a native of Salon-de-Provence, in southeastern France. "So when I had to start doing it, it was almost natural — like riding a bicycle."

The backyard chicken craze began over a decade ago, as flocks of foodies and urban homesteaders started setting up coops, raising hatchery chicks and, a few months later, harvesting superfresh, free-range eggs. But what casual backyard chicken enthusiasts didn't realize then is getting some of them in trouble now: after a few years, egg production slows way down. But the hens can live another decade. Now what?

Too chicken to slaughter and eat their own chickens, some owners have abandoned the birds or tried to foist them on local animal shelters, or, in one recent case, dump them on a farm in the dark of night.

A rooster walks around in the yard at Philippe Gouze's home, June 24, 2014 in New City. Gouze, the general manager of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, raises chickens at his home.
Tania Savayan/The Journal News

Chickens walk around in the yard at Philippe Gouze's home, June 24, 2014 in New City. Gouze, the general manager of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, raises chickens at his home.
Tania Savayan/The Journal News

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And sometimes people are ready to give up even before the hens stop laying. They just didn't realize how difficult — and expensive — chicken-raising can be.

"Sometimes people get them and go 'Uh-oh,' this isn't working out," said Clarkstown Animal Control Officer Patricia Coleman, who recently rescued an abandoned rooster from under the deck of a home on Pascack Road in Nanuet. "It becomes too much for them."

Clarkstown isn't the only community that has had to deal with abandoned birds wandering in the streets and crowing at the crack of dawn.

"We've gotten five this year, two hens and three roosters," said Michelle Torello, a board member at the Hi-Tor Animal Care Center in Ramapo. "It's not a ton, but people do call animal control and bring them to us."

In most cases, she said, the forsaken fowl were shipped off to the Barnyard Sanctuary, in Blairstown, New Jersey.

Besides eggs, the birds bestow other gifts, too: They happen to be great weeders, will eat basically anything, including bugs and ticks, and are a source of garden fertilizer. Owners also claim chickens can be as affectionate as any household pet.

South Nyack resident Charlie Boone is one of them. Almost seven years ago, Boone, a freelance writer, bought seven birds on a website, Mypetchicken.com, as a way to enrich his family's diet and teach his young son where food comes from.

But the birds quickly became something else: a part of the family, pets. Boone now has second batch of eight chickens, having lost most of first one to predators. The last to go, a Speckled Sussex hen called B.B., died of old age, six months ago.

"We buried her in the backyard," said Boone. "We said a couple of words. Like any other pet, she got the respect she deserved."

Boone built his own coop on the cheap from found lumber, but other well-intentioned enthusiasts often underestimate the cost and difficulty of raising fowl.

Building or buying a fence-enclosed coop can cost upwards of several thousand dollars. Vet visits for sick or injured birds add to the overhead of feeding, watering and utilities.

Also, there's a roughly 5 percent chance that a baby chick turns out to be a rooster, which are illegal in many municipalities because they're noisy and aggressive.

People expecting chicks end up posting messages like this one delivered on Backyardchickens.com from one Hudson Valley resident.

"Hi, I have a beautiful, silver laced Wyandotte rooster, he was supposed to be a hen but I guess the hatchery was wrong! He is about 3 months old and very sweet, but I am not allowed to have any roosters in my town. I need him gone ASAP, and I really don't want to butcher him. Thanks."

"I get at least one call a week from somebody who wants to give me a rooster," said Ken Kleinpeter, vice president for operations at the Glynwood Center in Cold Spring.

"I always advise people: Before you get chickens, get an end plan," said Erin Campbell-Craven, a livestock community educator at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Ulster County. "You need to be able to take care of these animals for their entire lives."

But Philippe Gouze said slaughtering the birds is no big deal. His advice to the squeamish? Hold the bird and cut its throat with a sharp knife so the blood drains.

"I just keep the chicken under my arm and aim for the artery," Gouze said. "I'm able to collect the blood in a small container."

"They have excellent flavor, but they're a bit tough," said Haney. "They look a little scrawny compared to the Cornish Croft chickens you get at a farmer's market."

In fact, in other parts of the world, notably Eastern Europe and Latin America, there is a culture of cooking roosters as well as old birds past their egg-laying prime. Dishes include coq au vin and sancocho, a rich yellow soup made with plantains and potatoes.

Part of the problem in the U.S. is once suburbanites get to know their chickens, they don't want to eat them.

Brett Alcaro, the head farmer at Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown, said he occasionally gets calls from people seeking homes for their chickens. Last fall, three roosters were dumped on the 50-acre farm in the middle of the night.

"It's pretty common around this area," said Alcaro. "People don't know what to do with their animals, and they don't want to kill them themselves."

"They're scrambling," he added. "No pun intended."

Twitter: @alextailored

There are animal sanctuaries that will accept unwanted or injured chickens.